9.13.2015

Read These Blogs

The Collected Poems of YFC: "This blog is authored by a group of Asian North American writers who are responding critically to Hudson's exploitation of an Asian American identity. We support the demand that Hudson stop using the name of Yi-Fen Chou."

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When White Poets Pretend to Be Asian: By now, you may have heard about the racefakery of Michael Derrick Hudson, who took up the pen name "Yi-Fen Chou." This is not a new thing. When it comes to literary hoaxes, it seems somehow easier to fake Asia, a land still distant and inscrutable to many Americans.

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They Pretend To Be Us While Pretending We Don't Exist: White poet Michael Derrick Hudson's use of the Chinese pen name Yi-Fen Chou was an act of yellowface that is part of a long tradition of white voices drowning out those of color in the literary world. Jenny Zhang writes a powerful essay talking about the struggles of being a woman writer of color.

Why Asian Americans have diabetes but don't know it: "More than half of Asian Americans with diabetes don't know they have the condition, according to new research that quantifies, for the first time, how common diabetes is among that minority group in the United States."

Mindy Kaling: By the Book: The actress, producer and author, most recently, of Why Not Me? secretly read in bed as a child. "My parents encouraged reading, but they didn't anticipate me reading Michael Crichton's 'Sphere' until 2 a.m. on a school night."

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The Big Idea: Zen Cho:
Zen Cho's debut novel, Sorcerer to the Crown, is a Regency romance novel that centers on Britain's colonial territories. And tea, magic, and dragons.